Apple of your eye

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Today, 3 February, is the feast of Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr. In the Divine Office, it gives the option to use the Common for one martyr, or the Common of Pastors. I chose the Common of Martyrs and one line from the Psalms was this :

Guard me as the apple of your eye Psalm 16(17):8

I've always loved that expression. The meaning is obviously something we cherish. But why "apple"? I thought there might be a Biblical explanation. For example, 

And with that the woman, who saw that the fruit was good to eat, saw, too, how it was pleasant to look at and charmed the eye, took some fruit from the tree and ate it; and she gave some to her husband, and he ate with her. Genesis 3:6

Although the fruit was not specifically named, it is often depicted in art as an apple. Regardless, she clearly values this fruit and values it above even the will of God. As the Knox translation puts it, it "charmed the eye". There is that eye again. 

Eyes are often said to be a window to the soul. They convey our feelings. Imagine if God were to look into the eyes of Adam and Eve in the moments after eating the fruit. I often thought that rather than seeing a reflection of Him (God made man in his own image, made him in the image of God. Genesis 1:27) He would instead see a reflection of that forbidden fruit. 

I decided to consult, as most of us moderns do, the wikipedia entry on Apple of my eye : 

In it we learn that "apple" is a substitute for "pupil" in that it is small, round, and dark. We also learn that this is a uniquely idiomatic English confection and different from the Hebrew. So what does the Hebrew say? Wikipedia explains one other meaning,

There is, however, a popular notion that 'iyshown is a diminutive of "man" ('iysh), so that the expression would literally mean "Little Man of the Eye"; if so, this would be consistent with a range of languages, in which the etymology of the word for pupil has this meaning.

How did that expression come about? Might I suggest that the apple of our eye should indeed reflect that same scene I depicted earlier in the Garden of Eden? When God looks in our eyes, He wants to see His perfect reflection. Who is His perfect reflection? Who is the Imago Dei? Who else but Jesus Christ, His Son? A "little man" you might say. 

Other than the ocular sense of the word, the English word "pupil" is also used to denote a student. This term is derived from the Latin which means minor as the ward of an adult guardian. Like a son. Or rather THE Son.

Guard me as the apple of your eye (Psalm 16(17):8)

Guard me, protect me, save me as you would your own Son, Jesus Christ. 

This is precisely what every Mass brings forth. 

We cannot satisfy Divine justice for our sins. 

But Jesus can. 

When we unite ourselves to His sacrifice on the Cross (and re-presented on the altar) we can too. 

When the priest elevates the Eucharist and we gaze up, once more our eyes reflect that true apple, the "little man", the "pupil", the Son...and God the Father indeed is pleased. 

We are being brought into the love of the Holy Trinity. God the Father, from all eternity, looks upon and loves His Son. Jesus the Son, looks back and loves the Father. And that love between them is the Holy Spirit.

The eye is the light of the whole body, so that if thy eye is clear, the whole of thy body will be lit up; whereas if thy eye is diseased, the whole of thy body will be in darkness. And if the light which thou hast in thee is itself darkness, what of thy darkness? How deep will that be! (Matthew 6:22-23)

The Word of God is often depicted as light. Sometimes this is a metaphor 

I am the light of the world, he said. He who follows me can never walk in darkness; he will possess the light which is life. (John 8:12)

And others as embodied light

And here the Lord revealed himself through a flame that rose up from the midst of a bush; it seemed that the bush was alight, yet did not burn. Here is a great sight, said Moses, I must go up and see more of it, a bush that does not waste by burning. (Exodus 3:2-3)

Notice again that the "light" of God is something visual, and hence why "The eye is the light of the whole body." We get a glimpse of this when we understand something : we usually say, "I see". Also notice the sentence "We get a glimpse"...."glimpse" again is a metaphor relating sight to knowledge. 

2 February was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the New Rite and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Old Rite. Both feasts, although named differently, describe the same event : the coming of the Holy Family to the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus, as light of the world, is taking His place in the Temple, the central place of worship. He is there because He will now be the focal point of worship. He is the new Temple. This feast is often called Candlemas, as candles are blessed during this Mass. I was happy to get mine yesterday and it will act as a reminder of Jesus the light of the world entering my home and my heart.

We need to fill our eyes with the light, because it is the only way we can truly see. We need to spend less time filling our eyes -and by extension our bodies and our souls- with things that are not of God. We need to look away from our phones, we need to look away from our computer screens. We need, at least at times, to look away even from friends and family (If any man comes to me, without hating his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yes, and his own life too, he can be no disciple of mine. Luke 14:26) and turn to God. We can do this through reading of Scripture, prayer, and perhaps best by looking upon Christ in the Monstrance at Eucharistic Adoration or failing that just in the Tabernacle in our local parish.

It is then that we can exclaim with Saint Thomas, "Thou art my Lord and my God" (John 20:28)

We know that we are the apple of God's eye. Let's make Him the apple of our eye.

⛪